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 From Lithuania comes a new, eponymous fragrance by designer Juozas Statkevicius, an eau de parfum a priori exotic, mysterious, and as it turns out deeply contemplative and sensual.
This perfume so moved me that it made me experience for the first time, as provoked by a perfume and in spite of myself, a surge of emotion translating into a knot in my throat. I do not understand the effect of the fragrance completely but I will attempt to describe it. But first some context. Juozas Statkevicius is known as a provocative and innovative designer from Vilnius, Lithuania. He made his fashion debut in Paris in 2002 with a collection of unconventional designs which brought him overnight recognition. There was his shawl with a pillow sewn in it. A model wore arm bracelets representing human bones in black and silver. All on the catwalk wore makeup that included some drops of fake blood dripping on their faces....
Continue reading "Juozas Statkevicius/Josef Statkus Eau de Parfum {Perfume Review & Musings}" »
 I'm hoping you can help me learn more about Nina Ricci's Coeur Joie. I think it was very important before 1960.
My friend is trying to find it, or something very much like it, for his wife's birthday. It is her all-time favorite.
Any help you can provide would be very much appreciated.
Thank you, Neal Hi Neal, Thanks for a great question. I understand why your friend's wife considers Coeur Joie to be her all time favorite fragrance. It is a beautiful subtle perfume which combines soft flowers and woods in a rare fashion making it a very feminine scent with a discrete element of masculinity in it thanks to an understated element of dryness. The bottle by Marc Lalique is also exceptional....
Continue reading "Coeur Joie by Nina Ricci {Ask Marie-Helene}" »
1776 is the name of a Russian leather cologne issued by Elsha which seems to have a cult following amongst aficionados. The information provided by Elsha.com is succint. They seem to offer a background chronology for the cologne but in fact the data provided is a bit incoherent. One thing we can certainly retain is that it is a cologne "...steeped in history and romance..." with an emphasis on the second term apparently. According to Basenotes, Elsha also marketed two other perfumes called Golden Eagle and Liberty Bell. I found some rare mentions of Elsha 1776 Russian Leather in the press from the 1950s and 1960s...
Continue reading "1776 by Elsha {Perfume Review & Musings} {Men's Cologne of the Week}" »
Black Orchid, as its name promised to deliver, is a dark voluptuous perfume with all the attributes necessary to become the scent of choice of a film noir femme fatale. The perfume seems to play, from the onset, with the evocation of disquieting shadows projected on the wall of a passion crime scene and makes us enter a universe replete with seething sensuality, foreboding and mystery. It is a beautiful rare, both dark and unexpectedly green, heavy and fresh perfume with gourmand and even slightly offensive overtones. Remarkably so the scent toys with some near-repulsive olfactory facets such as the smells of cheese and borderline decaying matter found in certain tropical flowers due to the combined presence of compounds like dimethyl disulfide (DMDS, 1) and dimethyl trisulfide (DMTS, 2). The perfume artfully manages to stay precisely on the edge of repulsion, suggesting it more as the next possible outcome rather than making it concretely be felt....
Continue reading "Black Orchid by Tom Ford {Perfume Review & Musings}" »
 Ho Hang by Balenciaga was created by nose Jacques Jantzen in 1971. It is classified as an aromatic fougère. The Eau de Toilette features top notes of bergamot, lemon, orange, basil, mint. Heart notes are rosewood, geranium, carnation, lavender, nutmeg, and pimento. Base notes are patchouli, vetiver, sandalwood, amber, vanilla, Tonka, labdanum, and musk....
Continue reading "Ho Hang by Balenciaga {Perfume Review & Musings} {Men's Cologne of the Week}" »
 Eau d'Italie Le Sirenuse Positano is a line of perfumes originally inspired by Hotel Le Sirenuse in the locale of Positano on the Italian Amalfian Coast. To the initial Eau d'Italie have succeeded three other perfumes, all inspired by Italy and its history: Paestum Rose, Sienne L'Hiver (Sienna in Winter), and Bois D'Ombrie (Umbria Woods). I find that perfume and nostalgia being intimately linked, it is only fitting that a sense of place be translated into perfumes. The symbolic gesture of taking a handful of dirt and inhaling its scent deeply to be reminded of one's roots and provenance is something that all people who have been transplanted in their lives can relate to. It may be those few grams of earth, that some even take with them upon leaving, as it may be any types of physical evidences of our lives past. I also said earlier that nationalism as a deeply aesthetic emotion could be potentially shared and reactivated through the sharing of common, iconic smells. Le Sirenuse seems thus to be piecing together an image of Italy, ideal and worth remembering. It is a romanticized version of the Italian peninsula in the fall and winter...
Continue reading "Paestum Rose, Sienne L'Hiver, Bois D'Ombrie by Eau D'Italie Le Sirenuse Positano" »
 Dianthus, borrowing its name from the Latin scientific term for carnation, is the latest perfume by Italian fashion house Etro. As with many Etro fragrances, the perfume bears a simple and elegant signature. There are no chichis here, the style is definitely not baroque, and the eau de toilette invokes simple fluid lines in a clothing. It is a true eau de toilette; its relative lightness as well as the design of the flacon makes it be akin to a bath product, an impression which is confirmed by the soapy and clean undertones found in this carnation soliflore... Dianthus Chinensis
Continue reading "Etro Dianthus (2006) {Perfume Review & Musings}" »
 Balahé by Léonard was created by nose Daniel Molière during the attention-craving, power-hungry 1980s showcasing, fashionwise, the big threes: Big hair, Big shoulderpads, and Big sillage. Dynasty was shown everywhere in the world and more importantly watched everywhere. Today, or at least until recently, SUVs were the new Big seeing the transformation of women dressed in armor-like dresses and helmet hairdoes into creatures more casually dressed but well protected by the shield-like accessory that the SUV came to be.
The flacon of Balahé retains some of the elemental forces at play in our lives in its design. The black glass bottle designed by Serge Mansau is like a shape half-bottle, half-rock calling us back to yet a further point in the past, probing our unconscious memories of cave dwellings and fights for survival. It is speaking, hissing to our reptilian brain. Has the story changed much? Apparently not. The global success of Angel by Thierry Mugler is a constant reminder that an important part of perfume-wearing has still to do with the art of war and impress/fear tactics. Many women wearing Angel claim that they feel protected by it. Psychologists speculate that strong perfumes might help cover up insecurities and create a strong persona where vulnerabilities lie. You are saying in other words "don't mess with me" more or less politely, with your perfume, thus expressing, thanks to the symbolism of aromas, your inner agressivity that is successfully projected outwards without having to put it in so many words. Perfume critics often use the term "projection" to speak of a perfume and to define its aromatic impact on the immediate environment...
Continue reading "Balahé by Léonard {Scented Thoughts & Perfume Review & Musings}" »
 As far as one can tell, the Lobogal perfume brand is still very little known in the US and even in Europe it seems despite its quality. I was fortunate enough to be able to test the fragrances from the line and will review them starting with the men's eau de toilette today. As previously reported and quoting myself, Lobogal Pour Lui (Logogal For Him) is part of a trio of luxury perfumes by Lobogal, the two others fragrances being Lobogal Pour Elle and Lobogal Gold. The brand is relatively recent having been established in 2004 in Paris by the French company BGL-Beauté. The perfumes were created by noses Pierre Bourdon and Valérie Garnuch and the bottles designed by Thierry Lecoule. Pierre Bourdon is also the author, amongst others, of YSL Kouros (1981), Davidoff Cool Water (1988), Dior Dolce Vita (1995), Frédéric Malle Iris Poudre (2000), Escada Magnetism (2003), and Franchesco Smalto Fullchoke (2005)...
Continue reading "Lobogal Pour Lui by Lobogal + Free Samples Giveaway {Perfume Review & Musings} {Men's Cologne of the Week} " »
 Billet Doux (Love Letter/Note) is the latest release by Fragonard, to celebrate the 80th Anniversary of the perfume house. It is a re-edition and an adaptation of an original fragrance from the 1950s from the house's catalogue. The name of the perfume itself was inspired by a painting bearing the same name by Jean-Honoré Fragonard; the house was named after the painter. According to Fragonard, Billet Doux "... pays homage to the most beautiful flowers of the French Riviera: Sweet William carnation, peony and frangipani with accords of bergamot, lemon and mandarin all on a soft background of cedar, vanilla and musk".  Billet Doux is a priori a soft carnation fragrance offering discreet but unexpected developments thanks to the significant additions of frangipani and orris. It evolves from being soft, powdery, and gently spicy to being creamy, mellow, and discreetly lush, then rootey.The contrast between these different stages of the development gives it its character. The drydown is a light combination of deliciously understated vanilla and faintly smokey cedar wood with rootey overtones with the orris peaking through much later in the drydown...
Continue reading "Billet Doux by Fragonard {Perfume Review & Musings}" »
 West Side is the latest perfume launch by Bond no 9, an upscale niche perfume house dedicated to interpreting in fragrances the different neighborhoods of New York City. This time it is the West Side, home to Lincoln Center, Carnegie Hall, Birdland and the Copacabana, that is honored in relation to its musical heritage. West Side is the house's 27th fragrance. The fragrance was composed by nose Michel Almairac who previously created for the same house The Scent of Peace and Fire Island. Some of his other works include the wonderful Burberry Burberry for Women, L'Artisan Voleur de Roses, Grès Cabaret, and my personal favorite hands down Gucci Pour Homme, a truly exceptional jus. West Side features top notes of rose, ylang-ylang, and peony; heart notes of sandalwood and amber; the drydown is redolent of vanilla and musk.
As West Side is meant to embody the musical beat of New York City it is described by Bond no 9 as "...an ultra-melodious eau de parfum that finds the scent equivalent for the sounds of music in its full-bodied, mellow composition, its undulating rhythms, its harmonies, its pitch—and yes, its notes. Whether they’re high or low, dark or light, sweet or sharp—notes are what music and fragrance are both about". Perfume and music are made to be even more consciously associated than is usual in perfumery with the evocation of an explicit musical imagery to guide the interpretation of the fragrance. The bold treble keys drawn on the flacons with vivid colors illustrate this artistic theme. All listening are invited to offer their own interpretations as "Fragrance, like music, is open to interpretation. Everyone who sniffs it will hear—and smell—a different melody of their own". So what is the sound of West Side on this day and as heard by this listener?...
Continue reading "West Side by Bond no 9 {Perfume Review & Musings}" »
 Gucci Pour Homme Eau de Toilette was created in 2003 by perfumer Michel Almairac of Robertet. As already mentioned earlier on The Scented Salamander, Almairac is also "...the author of the wonderful Burberry London for Women, Lumière by Rochas, Voleur de Roses by L'Artisan Parfumeur, Cabaret by Grès, and Minotaure by Paloma Picasso, amongst others". The perfume was composed under the creative direction of Tom Ford.  The Gucci Pour Homme referred to here, composed by Michel Almairac, and launched in 2003 is not be confused with the Gucci Pour Homme introduced in 1976 which is a chypre and was composed by nose Guy Robert. The latter is discontinued....
Continue reading "Perfume Review & Musings: Men's Cologne of the Week: Gucci Pour Homme (2003) by Gucci" »
 Omnia Crystalline was introduced in 2005, two years after Omnia. The perfume was created by Alberto Morillas the nose behind many a great perfumes including Flower Le Parfum by Kenzo, Panthère by Cartier, M7 by YSL, and Bulgari Omnia, amongst others. According to WWD, "It started with a notion of transparency and luminosity," Paolo Alberti, vice president of the perfume and licenses division for Bulgari, said of the scent. "We wanted to make a jewel-like object that had maximum purity and light. Our heritage in jewelry made the pureness of crystals and the name Crystalline come to mind immediately."....
Continue reading "Omnia Crystalline by Bulgari {Perfume Review & Musings}" »
 The latest release by the French niche perfume house Estéban is an olfactory pean sung to Africa and is called Secrète Afrique (Secret Africa). The perfume is available in eau de toilette concentration only together with ancillary products devoted to the ritual of bathing. Secrète Afrique is part of the collection called Le Bain (The Bath) which already includes Fraîcheur Anadalouse, Douceur Balinaise, and Sensuelle Russie and which adheres to a travel theme. Notes are very succintly described as including hesperidic notes, ginger, cedar, and patchouli. In France, the perfume retails for 30 Euros.
At first sniff, the perfume does not evoke to me Africa at all except through this purely nominal reference. My puzzlement leads me to playfully suggest that perhaps what Estéban had in mind was a colonial reference to a French bakery located somewhere in Northern Africa. There does not seem to have anything secret about it either (notwithstanding the fact that the secret is partially given out with the name of the scent). If a term comes to mind to describe the perfume, it is "cute". On closer scrutiny (upon a third application), I realize that the perfume reveals an underlying spicy and exotic character that is more deeply set in its heart...
Continue reading "Perfume Review & Musings: Secrète Afrique by Estéban" »
I will not go over the artificiality of the distinction between men's and women's perfumes here, except to say that my position is that, although the distinction should not be taken too seriously, one cannot deny nevertheless the fact that certain accords are traditionally coded as being masculine and hence may feel that way to a person brought up in a culture and era that mark those scents as such. I personally cannot wear a perfume that makes me feel like I am wearing an after-shave.......
Continue reading "Salvador Dali Pour Homme (1987) {Perfume Review & Musings} {Men's Cologne}" »
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